CD2
To Rock Or Not To Be:
Lion Heart
Flying Through The Night
To Rock or Not To Be
In The Dead Of The Night
Natural Blonde
Doggy Style
Talking Like A Shotgun
Soul To Soul
Stop The World
You Ain’t Got The Guts To Do It
Wagon Gone
Stormy Nights
BONUS TRACK
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet
Chesslete

The biggest and best band to come out of Switzerland, Krokus formed and debuted on New Year’s Eve 1975. Their breakthrough came in early 1980 when the album “Metal Rendez-Vous” was officially distributed outside their home country and it quickly became the band’s first Gold album. During that year Krokus embarked on their first US tour with the likes of Sammy Hagar, Cheap Trick and AC/DC.

During the late eighties, after success in the States and the UK and several best-selling releases (including “Hardware” and “Headhunter”) long-term touring and recording took its toll. After a final US tour in 1988 founder member Fernando von Arb left and the various band members went on to embark on various solo projects. During this period, von Arb formed a new version of Krokus and in 1990 this line-up recorded “Stampede” one of the two CDs featured here.

In 1994 Krokus continued with members from their classic line-up and released “To Rock or Not To Be”, the second CD included in this double Angel Air presentation. Five years on, in 1999, will see the band gigging again in the UK and making plans for a new album.

Reviews

The legendary Swiss Hardrockband KROKUS made a return to the scene in 1990 with the album ‘Stampede’, an album that saw the replacement of original singer MARC STORACE. New singer was found in the shape of Peter Tanner, who was a good replacement. The album’s opener and titletrack “Stampede” saw the band moving into faster paced pure melodic metal, like JUDAS PRIEST, yet a bit more melodic. The rest of the album was just pure KROKUS, so rough and ready Hardrock with singable choruses, with as highlights “Electric man”, “Nova-zand” (pure LED ZEPPELIN midtempo “Kashmir” style), “Good times” and “In the heat of the night” (a 7-minute classy melodic rocker).

4 years later the band released ‘To rock or not to be’, which saw the return of MARC STORACE, although musically a bit simpler Hardrock and not as good as classic KROKUS, but still with songs like “Flying through the night”, “In the dead of the night”, “Talking like a shotgun” and “Stormy nights” an interesting record for the fans of the band. Both albums have been released onto a double-CD in the UK by ANGEL AIR RECORDS, with the addition of a few bonustracks, such as the BTO cover “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet” and the unreleased KROKUS originals “Wasteland” and “Stormy night”. In other words, highly recommended to the KROKUS fan! (8/10)